This is not the first time Ruth had been trapped inside the Grid with no means of escape while the fate of the realm hung in the balance. It was not even the second time. And if she allowed herself a moment to think about it, she might wonder if her presence on the Grid had anything to do with that nasty trend. Well, it was directly related to her with Angela Wells, but the Russian and Chinese hackers trying to infiltrate the Grid to gain access to Cybershell and therefore the entire Western cyber security network didn't really have anything to do with her.

So Ruth didn't think about it. She carried on as best she could, supporting the team and brainstorming ideas. Keeping organized and focused, making connections and doing what she did best: figuring out a way to do what needed to be done.

It was Tariq, really, who did most of it. He really was a technological whiz and they were lucky to have him. After Beth and Dimitri had called in a decoy location and lured the hackers' hired muscle to it, they were able to get some identities, thanks to Tariq's contraband laptop giving them network access outside of the hackers' detection. Only the hackers figured out that they knew, and they shut down everything. They were trapped.

The waiting was the worst part. Tariq was the only one who could make any headway with the network and computers and things. Dimitri tried to shoot through the glass walls. Beth tried to find a way through the vents. Harry paced like a caged tiger, and Ruth just sat and watched and waited. Waited until there was something that could be done. And she tried her best not to think.

If she let herself think, her mind might wander to Harry and how much she loved him and wanted him and ached to be apart from him and desperately yearning for some way for a happy life together that she just couldn't believe was possible. If she let herself think, her mind might also wander to Lucas and whatever he might be involved with and what trouble he might be in and what damage might be done as a result and was it a good thing or a bad thing that he was out in the field with cryptographer Danielle Ortiz who controlled the codes to Cybershell? And of course, that wasn't the end to her anxious wondering and worrying. Those were just the most distracting topics.

Thank god Tariq figured out how to reroute the connections so they could see what the hackers were doing. That gave her something to focus on, something that could give them a clue as to what they could do about this mess.

"They're starting to download our archives," Tariq announced, once he got it up and running.

Everyone crowded around his station. "What are they stealing?" Harry asked.

"Personnel files," Tariq answered. "Starting with us. Section D."

Dimitri put his hands behind his head in response to the stress of it. Beth's hands were clenching. Ruth had the urge to start pacing the way Harry had been, but Harry himself just stood still. Strong. Focused. "How long before they have everything?" he asked Tariq.

"They're huge data packets, but an hour, tops."

None of this was good news, but no one said anything.

Tariq leaned forward, looking at the screen. "This is strange. A call's being made."

"By who?"

"According to this, by you. It's calling Lucas," Tariq told Harry.

"Can we talk to him?"

"No. We can only listen in."

And that was how they learned that the hackers had been spending hours and hours listening in and recording everything so that they had recreated Harry's voice. They all stared at Tariq's computer as they heard what seemed to be a perfect replica of Harry Pearce tell Lucas that the Cybershell uplink was cancelled and they were sending someone to collect the codes at a rendezvous point.

Harry disappeared into his office to brood. Ruth was mildly surprised he'd not started breaking things yet. But shouting and causing destruction would not help the situation, and Harry knew that, of course. And Ruth knew, too, that if he was starting to feel his resolve weaken, he'd not let it show in front of the team. He would be strong for them, as he always was.

Ruth watched Harry and the tension in his body as they listened in when Lucas called back. The false Harry had a delay as new responses were generated. And there was nothing, nothing they could do. It was agony. Lucas had no idea, and they had no way of telling him that it wasn't Harry Pearce giving a kill order on an unarmed civilian. Bayonet protocol, theta five. The spoof kept repeating it. And Harry's own authorization codes were being sent. They had everything. As much as they all wanted to believe that Lucas wouldn't do it, that Lucas would be able to figure it out, he got the order from Harry himself. Why wouldn't he comply?

"I just had a really terrible idea."

Everyone turned as Dimitri walked away following that odd announcement. And then suddenly it made sense. He'd spent all morning mucking about with that bomb all day. The battery and active components had been detached but he still had them. Dimitri had a bomb on the Grid.

Ruth stayed with Tariq at the computers while Beth and Harry followed Dimitri. She could hear Harry try to convince him not to be so stupid and take a risk with a bloody bomb, but Dimitri was adamant. He had a stubbornness about him that they'd not seen much of before now. It was coming from his experience. His confidence. He had the skills from his time in Special Branch, and he was becoming wise in the way of Security Services. Dimitri knew what he could do, and he was going to do it.

Lucas called back as Dimitri worked on the bomb. He asked Harry his favorite opera.

And there it was. Ruth smiled. "He knows."

The false Harry repeated the order and protocols, but Lucas wasn't fooled anymore.

"I've got an idea," Ruth murmured softly.

Harry looked at her, and she met his eyes to see an expression she knew very well. Harry knew that Ruth had figured something out, that she was going to solve something. And when he knew that, he looked at her with a rather endearing blend of amusement, affection, and curiosity.

Her plan worked, in the end. Dimitri blew up half the Grid, they all got out and onto secure systems, Tariq rigged up the CCTV recordings from earlier in the day to make it look like everyone was at their stations, and they patched Harry's mobile into the audio feed.

Dimitri and Harry went with CO-19 to the location Tariq was able to find, and they snuck in as Harry spoke to the hackers on the phone, stalling for time to negotiate the return of their data.

They'd won and gotten everything back and took the hackers into custody. Harry went to calm the Americans. Lucas hadn't been able to save Danielle Ortiz, and it was clear he felt badly. Ruth and Beth worked with Thames House to start the cleanup and reconstruction of the part of the Grid that Dimitri's bomb had destroyed. Luckily, it wouldn't get in the way of the ordinary operations of the Grid.

It was well into the evening when Beth and Dimitri finally went home and Tariq was finishing his last security reviews. Ruth was going to head out herself, but she couldn't. Not just yet. Harry was in his office, and they needed to talk.

She walked in without knocking, as always. He looked up and gave her a small smile.

"Well done," Ruth said, sliding the door closed behind her.

"Thank you," he answered. "I like the days that end like this. With a bit of one-upmanship."

She couldn't help but smirk. "You like to show off."

"I don't get the opportunity to do it much anymore," he said flippantly.

He was in a good mood. Harry wasn't often in a good mood nowadays, not since Ruth had…well…

"Not a perfect result by any means. That poor girl," Harry added.

Ruth nodded. They had lost a life today, and that was never an easy outcome to sit with. She crossed to sit down in front of his desk. "How was Beecher?"

Harry gave a small hum. "I'm starting to get the awful feeling that I don't actually hate him."

Leave it to Harry. And if things were different, Ruth would have chuckled and teased him and maybe come over to wrap her arms around him and kiss his cheek. But things weren't like that anymore. Her warm, good feeling faded away as she got to her real topic. "I'm sorry I had to bring up…you know."

It was physically painful, actually, to have come so far with him and have lost it all. They had, up until a few weeks ago, been able to share anything. For the first time in all their years together, they could discuss things openly without fear that they'd step over the line or do something that would hurt the other. And now, Ruth couldn't even say the words to him while she looked him in the face.

She tried to push past it, say her apology and explanation and escape. "I had to get you the note and…"

"Ruth, don't give it a second thought," he interrupted.

It was a kindness. A kindness she didn't deserve.

But then he added, "At least not until tomorrow. I'd like if you could come to mine so we can talk properly. Even if you were just getting me the note today, you were right that such matters shouldn't be discussed here. But it's been ten days, and we agreed to reevaluate."

Ruth felt her stomach go in knots. She swallowed hard. "Okay. We're rostered off for the reconstruction tomorrow. Beth will be home. Best to be at yours. I'll come by at ten."

Harry nodded in agreement. But before he could say anything else, a knock came at the door. "Come in," he called.

Tariq walked in. "I've been sweeping the system and I found this. It's a simple intercept. Logging keystrokes from one terminal."

"Whose terminal?" Harry asked as he took the little device in his hand.

"Lucas's," Tariq said.

"Thank you, Tariq," Ruth said quickly. "I'll take it from here."

Both Harry and Tariq stared at her a moment, but thankfully Tariq left.

"I put it there," she confessed to Harry.

"Why?" His surprise was evident. She hated that.

She had hoped to have more evidence before they did this, before she shattered him with yet another trusted person betraying him. But there was nothing for it now. She had to tell him. "Harry, he can't be trusted. Hold on."

Ruth hurried out of his office to get her laptop where she'd been saving all of her notes on the issue, and she was thankfully back before Harry could protest.

With the laptop in front of them both, Ruth leaned over at his desk and showed everything she'd collected. "His debrief reports don't match with GPS signals. There are call logs here to encrypted numbers. He's been not answering his phone. And today? Losing the CIA detail?"

"Why didn't you come to me with this before?" Harry asked, his voice quiet. Hurt.

And that was exactly why. She didn't want to hurt him any more than she already had. She didn't want him to dismiss her suspicions just because he was upset at her over their relationship. She snapped, "Because I knew you wouldn't believe me, so I had to get evidence."

"This is nothing," he dismissed.

Oh she hated that she knew him so well, knew she needed more before coming to him. But Ruth would not be dissuaded. "I'm telling you," she insisted, "he's in trouble."

Harry's face set in a determined line. "I need to think, Ruth. That will be all. And I don't want to talk about this tomorrow."

"Nor do I," she replied coldly.

He closed the laptop and handed it to her. "That'll be all."